President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed Russia’s “liberation” of Mariupol after Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told him Moscow controlled the Ukrainian port city apart from the giant Azovstal steel plant. Taking full control of Mariupol on the Azov Sea would be a major strategic victory for Russia, helping it to connect annexed Crimea to the territories of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. “Mariupol has been liberated,” Shoigu told Putin during a televised meeting. “The remaining nationalist formations took refuge in the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant.” Shoigu said around 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained inside the plant, where the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance has been sheltering, using the facility’s network of underground tunnels. Russian missteps in Ukraine offer China lessons in logistics, troop morale Putin said the “liberation” of Mariupol was a “success” for Russian forces, but ordered Shoigu to call off the planned storming of the Azovstal industrial area, dismissing it as “impractical”. “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities. Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,” Putin said. Putin called on the remaining Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal to lay down their arms, saying Russia would treat them with respect and provide medical help to those injured. Russia has repeatedly issued ultimatums to the defenders to surrender, but the Ukrainians have ignored them. Putin and Shoigu’s comments appeared to reflect a change in strategy in Mariupol, where the Russians previously seemed determined to take every last inch of the city. But it was not clear what it would mean in practical terms. Ukrainian officials did not comment on the latest remarks, but earlier said four buses with civilians managed to escape from the city after several unsuccessful attempts. Thousands more remain the city, much of which has been reduced to a smoking ruin in a nearly two-month siege, with over 20,000 people feared dead. Earlier this week, Ukraine said the Russians dropped heavy bombs to flatten what was left of the Azovstal steel plant. The steel plant and its labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers are spread out across about 11 sq km. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 1,000 civilians were also trapped there. US lead G20 walkout as Russian officials spoke at meeting A Ukrainian apparently in the plant posted a Facebook video urging world leaders to help evacuate people from the plant, saying: “We have more than 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with us, including women and children”. The officer identified himself as Serhiy Volynsky of the 36th Marine Brigade and warned: “This may be our last appeal. We may have only a few days or hours left”. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified. After failing early in the war to take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Russian troops have regrouped for an offensive in the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region that could allow them to take control of territory and form a land bridge to Crimea, the peninsula Putin annexed in 2014. According to Russia’s defence ministry, its forces struck 1,001 targets overnight with missiles and shelling. Ukraine did not confirm the number, but regional leaders reported several attacks, including intense bombing in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, which sits near the Russian border in the northeast. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said Russia was “furiously” bombing overnight, hitting markets and residences. “The situation is stressful,” said Terekhov, who described the city as “tense but under control.” He said about a third of the city’s pre-war population of 2 million had fled since March. Russia pressures Mariupol, offers draft to Kyiv to end conflict Meanwhile the Kremlin said on Thursday that Moscow was still waiting for Ukraine’s response to Russia’s latest written proposal in peace talks between the two sides, and questioned why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was unaware of the document. Zelensky said on Wednesday he had not seen or heard about the text the Kremlin said it had sent. “I repeat once again, as I said yesterday, our formulations, in fact the latest version, were handed to our opponents, to the Ukrainian negotiating delegation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said the Kremlin was aware of Zelensky’s comment, “which also raises certain questions about why no one is reporting to President Zelensky about our versions of the text”. The comments from the two sides appeared to highlight both the gulf in their positions and the poor state of communication between them, eight weeks after Russia sent its troops and tanks into Ukraine and more than three weeks after they last held face-to-face talks on March 29. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 12 that the talks had come to a dead end. Ukraine’s chief negotiator said on Tuesday it was hard to predict when they might resume because of Russia’s siege of Mariupol and what he said was Moscow’s desire to strengthen its position through a new military offensive. Russia says it was forced to launch its “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine, and protect Russian-speakers there from “genocide” – arguments denounced by Kyiv and the West as baseless pretexts for war. Moscow wants Kyiv to accept the loss of Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and of the eastern Donbas region which is now the focus of the Russian offensive. Ukraine says it will not compromise on its sovereignty and territorial integrity. German Chancellor Scholz under fire for hesitant Ukraine stance President Joe Biden said the US is sending Ukraine another US$1.3 billion in arms and economic aid, and that he’ll ask Congress to authorise further assistance as Russia steps up its attacks in the country’s east. The money adds to $2.4 billion in US aid already authorised for the financial year, much of it weaponry. Of the new package, $800 million will go toward arms. “We’re in a critical window now of time where they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said. Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Bloomberg, Tribune News Service